About Those Porsches That Sank In The Atlantic

If I were to pose to you the question, “Where on earth is the highest concentration of Porsches?” What might you answer? California? Germany? Both would be good guesses. But I am now starting to believe that the highest concentration of Porsches - anywhere on earth - may be on the bottom of the ocean.

If you’ve been online at all for the past week or two, then you’ve undoubtedly seen the sensational headline that an auto-carrier named the Felicity Ace caught fire, was abandoned, and then sunk in the Atlantic ocean. But what’s really got the media buzzing is the fact that the Felicity Ace carried almost 4,000 VW Group luxury cars, bound for the U.S., including Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Bentleys. In total, there is close to half a billion dollars worth of cars which are now in a watery grave.

Fascinated by the drama of the Felicity Ace, it piqued my curiosity about the history of cars lost at sea, so I did a little research and…whoa… Houston, we have a problem. Apparently, this happens way more frequently than you would think.

In 2019, a carrier off of France caught fire and sank with 37 Porsche 911 GT2 RS, along with 2,000 Audis. In 2012, a carrier with 1200 Mitsubishis sank off of Holland, and in 2004 a carrier with 2,862 BMWS, Saabs (remember them?), and Volvos was rammed and sank off of Belgium. Nearly 10,000 cars sent to the briny deep - and that was only a quick and dirty search of recent years!

But perhaps even more tantalizing are some of the classics lost. Of course, perhaps none more famous than the Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville that reportedly went down on the Titanic. But did you know that, in 1956, Ghia constructed a styling exercise prototype called the Chrysler Norseman, which they shipped to Detroit for review? If this doesn’t sound familiar it is likely because Ghia had the bad fortune to ship the Norseman on the SS Andrea Doria. Somehow there is an almost poetic irony to the Norseman receiving a Viking burial in the Atlantic.

So, all in all, I was kind of shocked to learn how many cars have ended up on the bottom of the ocean. In the case of the Felicity Ace, we were imagining that they would ultimately salvage the ship and keep it from adding to the alarming total of Porsches and others littering the bottom of the Atlantic. Unforutunately, that didn't happen - it's now at the bottom of the ocean ... and there go our plans of finding discounted Porsche 911s with smoked windows and genuine barbeque aroma.